Avantasia – Ghost Lights

Label: Nuclear Blast  Release: 29th January 2016  Playing Time: 71 minutes

Three years after the great “The Mystery Of Time”, Tobias Sammet releases the next album of his Metal Opera. Like on his predecessors, Tobias is being supported by a phalanx of well-known singers. Beside the already known voices of Michael Kiske, Jorn Lande and Bob Catley, there are also a couple of new singers involved, for example Dee Snider (Twisted Sister), Biff Byford (Saxon), Marco Hietala (Nightwish) and Ronnie Atkins (Pretty Maids).

But Avantasia is more than name dropping, as the first 6 albums have shown already. And „Ghost Lights“ is no exception because it is strong as it predecessors. The album begins with the catchy, but also a bit cheesy ‚Mystery Of A Blood Red Rose‘. The following long track ‚Let The Storm Descend Upon You‘ is the first big plus point, being dynamic and has a great chorus. More impressive tracks are for example the untypical ‚Draconian Love‘ and ‚Isle Of Evermore‘, a sort of ballade. But instead of the typical acoustic guitars, it consists almost exclusively of electric sounds, crowned by a great duet of Tobias and Sharon del Adel (Within Temptation). A well-done experiment. The before-mentioned ‚Draconian Love‘ is also somewhat untypical, with quite silent verses, and the low vocals of Herbie Langhans (Sinbreed) add a gothic touch. The following chorus has the whole song explode. It is simply the best track of the album. And these 3 phantasmic songs are not the only remarkable ones to be found on this album. Most of them are more or less fast an typical Avantasia. The only weaker one is maybe ‚Seduction Of Decay‘.

Finally, I can give you a clear purchase recommendation. Moreover, I have to say that meanwhile Avantasia has exceeded Tobias’ main band Edguy in terms of diversity, experimentalism and also quality!

http://www.avantasia.net